An Evaluation Area for Improvement

Discuss one "observation" area that you would like to improve on for your teacher evaluation.

This one's easy!  I just completed my state's evaluation tool's Self-Assessment and PLP indicators this past weekend. Our administration helps us out by giving ideas for what we can pick as our areas for improvement (usually related to areas we are working on collectively as a faculty), and one of this year's suggestions was an area I had already picked as an area of focus for the school year:  formative assessment.

Our district began implementing "strategic teaching" methods a few years ago, and there has been a renewed focus on knowing at the end of each class period which students have met the objective for the day and which ones have not.

I remember as we started hearing the words "formative assessment" in faculty meetings and training sessions how many of us asked, "We have to give a grade every day?" and, "Assessment?  Every day?"

As I have read blogs and articles (many of them via Twitter, of course), my understanding of formative assessment has deepened.  I now realize formative assessment has little to do with "a test" and is not intended to always be a grade.  Oh sure, I remember being taught the difference between formative and summative assessment in teacher ed classes at the undergrad and graduate level, but I remember being confused by the difference between the two at the time.

I have now read how formative assessment and its timely feedback have a huge impact on how much students learn.  I have read how to adjust my instruction daily based on what I learn from formative assessment.

And I have become determined to do a better job of administering and properly utilizing formative assessment in my classroom.

By the end of last year I knew my favorite types of formative assessments were reflective in nature. Tell me how you feel about this topic.  Green light (I got it!), yellow light (I'm a little confused), or red light (HELP!  I'm lost!)?  What parts do you understand, and what areas are unclear?  I have found students are pretty good at articulating where they are having difficulties.  I learn a lot from assessment of skills, too, but I get more information from reflections, I guess because I get a glimpse inside my students' thoughts.

One challenge for me when using formative assessments has been time.  In the past, I sometimes found I gave a formative assessment and it sat on my desk for days before being looked at.  That did neither me nor my students any good at all.  I am finding, though, with the flipped classroom, I have little snippets of time (in between walking around and assisting students) to look at formative assessments and give feedback more immediately.  Students get the papers back the next day in most cases.  In my collaborative Pre-Algebra classes, my partner teacher will pull groups of students who had difficulty with a topic to the back of the room, reteaching and helping students to correct their work.

To summarize, the ways in which I would like to see this area of my teacher evaluation improve are: give more frequent formative assessments, give students specific feedback on their work, and give students feedback in an amount of time that is useful to them.

I look forward to seeing the gains of my students as I work on this area!

Technology Integration for the '14-'15 School Year

It's Day 2 of TeachThought's 30-Day Blogging Challenge:  Reflective Teacher!

Today's topic:  "Write about one piece of technology you would like to try this year, and why.  You might also write about what you're hoping to see out of this edtech integration."

I'm not trying any new technology this year (that I know of at the moment); I'm looking to become more proficient with, and make better use of, technology we already have:  iPads.  Teachers in our system were given iPads in the spring of 2013.  We went 1:1 with iPads in grades 6-12 in the fall of 2013.

Last school year my integration of the iPads was pretty limited.  I made good use of our learning management system, Edmodo, and we used the iPads in my classroom primarily for textbooks and QR code scanners.

This year I've flipped my Algebra 1 classes, so I'm using the app Explain Everything to record lessons, and students are accessing those videos through YouTube links on Edmodo or downloading them into iTunes U.

I discovered Kahoot! this summer and have already used it several times.  The kids love it.

I hope to take advantage of Edmodo's Snapshot feature, giving common core-type formative assessments to see how my students are progressing on standards.

I still wrestle with the idea of becoming a paperless classroom.  While I love technology and what it does to enhance my classroom, there's a lot of old school math teacher left in me.  I am a paper-and-pencil girl.  I still sketch out my lesson plans each week in writing before typing them up and submitting them via Google Drive.  I still keep a handwritten gradebook.  I like holding real paper and giving feedback with a real pen.  I also have students who still prefer to write on real paper with a real writing utensil.

I do plan to try more digital assignments this year, though.  I know as I get more experience with it, I will become more comfortable with the idea.

While I am slower than some in the integration of technology in my classroom, I always make sure that I use what works for me and my students.  I may be slow, but I do eventually get there!

My Goals for the School Year

A teacher-friend at my school let me know via Twitter about TeachThought's 30-Day Blogging Challenge:  Reflective Teaching.

I've been very proud of myself for blogging once a week.

Every day for a month?  Well, that WILL be a challenge.  But I'm going to try my best.

Day 1's prompt is to write my goals for the school year.

I've already been in school four weeks (!) and my students have completed three.  My goals began to come into focus as last school year came to an end and through the summer as I read blogs and books and Twitter feeds.  The gears began turning and I knew what I wanted to accomplish this year.

The BIG goal - and the purpose for this blog - is the flipping of my Algebra 1 classes.  I knew by the middle of June I wanted to flip, and I have been working since then to make that happen.  You can read some of the process here, here, and here.  The beginning weeks of the flipped classroom have been successful.

Reflecting on my flipped classroom journey through this blog is another goal.

At the very beginning of the summer, before I made the decision to flip, I had found videos and writings by Rick Wormeli.  I set out to create a retake/redo policy in my classroom, allowing students the time and opportunity to truly understand and master material.  As I hoped, students are taking advantage of the new policy.  I am figuring out how to manage the extra paper flow.

Related to the retake/redo policy, I am taking steps to ensure the grades student have are accurate measures of what they know, not how compliant they are or how much work they have done.  My classroom is not a standards-based grading classroom, but I can see that becoming a reality at some point in the future.

After being introduced to and reading Carol Dweck's Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success, I am seeking to move my students from any fixed mindset habits they display to a growth mindset.

I have a goal to perform frequent formative assessments and give timely feedback.

As a result of feedback I received from last year's students after they took the Algebra 1 End of Course Test, I have a goal to dedicate more time to problem-solving.

The school year is young, but these goals are already being attained.  They become fine-tuned with each passing week, and I can't wait to see what they look like by the end of May.